Paveway II hat trick for Typhoon

Posted on: Jul. 17th, 2006 || Source: baesystems.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Paveway II hat trick for Typhoon

Wales, United Kingdom. - The Eurofighter Typhoon development programme continues to notch up the successes with Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) 1, flown by BAE Systems Typhoon Project Test Pilot Mark Bowman, performing the first releases of UK Paveway II Laser Guided Bombs.

The releases, conducted by BAE Systems at Warton, took place over the Aberporth range off the Welsh coast in the UK.

Trevor King, BAE Systems weapon system delivery director said: “This is a significant milestone, not only our customers whose requirement for air-to-ground capability on Typhoon is a key priority, but also for BAE Systems and the Eurofighter programme.”

Trevor added: “Typhoon is clearly demonstrating its ability to perform the air to ground role which is an exciting step forward for us all and will ensure that Typhoon provides the cornerstone of NATO’s defence capability for the next 30 years.”

Typhoon scored a hat trick with three successful drops on three consecutive days, with one bomb being released from each of the three underwing stations; inboard, centre and outboard. This completes the first phase of the programme.

Typhoon can carry up to six Paveway IIs and the aim of the trials is to clear store release and jettison for this configuration. In-service the bombs are released in a set sequence. For flight trials only one bomb is released per flight and for operational reasons the first release was from a three bomb configuration, the second from a single bomb configuration and the third from a five bomb configuration.

The exercise was completely successful, meeting all flight objectives. Analysis is now proceeding to clear the second phase of releases currently planned for later this month. A total of 15 releases are planned.

These trials follow on from recent releases of the similarly-sized GBU-16 Laser Guided Bombs from the Spanish test aircraft IPA4. The Spanish trials programme phase has now been successfully completed.

About BAE SYSTEMS
BAE Systems is the premier transatlantic defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With more than 100,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems’ sales exceeded GB £15.4 billion (US$28 billion) in 2005.
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